China Olympics - Hong Kong police eject Tibet activist from Olympic venue???

Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of an often controversial argument.

The word "activism" is often used synonymously with protest or dissent, but activism can stem from any number of political orientations and take a wide range of forms, from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism (such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing preferred businesses), rallies, blogging and street marches, strikes, or even guerrilla tactics. In the more confrontational cases, an activist may be called a freedom fighter by some, and a terrorist by others, depending on whether the commentator supports the activist's ends.

China Olympics - Hong Kong police eject Tibet activist from Olympic venue???
A pro-Tibet activist in Hong Kong said Saturday she was forced to leave the Olympic equestrian venue as the Games got under way here on Saturday.

The Hong Kong university student, who has a history of staging protests against the Chinese government, said she planned to unfurl a Tibetan flag inside the Olympic venue, but was forced to leave before she could do so.

Christina Chan said Olympic security staff first asked her to leave the venue, then called in police, who surrounded her and physically removed her.

"I was only holding a Canadian flag, I planned to use that as a decoy. But they said I'd broken the rules and would have to leave. The whole thing was pretty ridiculous," she told AFP.

"My friend went into the venue first and he snuck in the Tibetan flag and a banner, because I knew they would search me.

"I'm pretty upset, I got a bit scratched up and I'm bleeding from the elbow."

Tibet is one of the most contentious political issues facing the communist rulers of China, and Hong Kong authorities are determined not to cause embarrassment despite the territory's tradition of freedom of speech.

Organisers said Chan had breached International Olympic Committee rules.

"It is against IOC regulations to be propagating political slogans or aiming to create racial hatred," the Equestrian Company running events here on behalf of the Beijing Olympic Committee said in a statement.

It said Chan and another unidentified protestor "were advised to leave the venue."

"The incident was regrettable," it said. "Not only have they breached the IOC regulations, they also disturbing other spectators, hence they were told to leave and would not be welcome back."

Around 9,600 people turned up at the Shatin venue for the dressage round of the three-day eventing section of the equestrian games.

Police have designated "protest zones" for demonstrators -- who have so far turned up in noisy groups outside the Hong Kong venues to demonstrate against China's human rights abuses.

China Olympics - Hong Kong police eject Tibet activist from Olympic venue???

China Olympics - Zabriskie, McCartney leave Olympic men's road race??

David Zabriskie (born January 12, 1979 in Salt Lake City) is a professional road bicycle racer from the United States who rides for Team Garmin-Chipotle.His main strength is individual time trials and his career highlights include stage wins in all three Grand Tour stage races and winning the US National Time Trial Championship three times. Zabriskie is known for his quirky nature, including singing before stages and the interviews he does with fellow riders in the professional peloton which are posted on his web site.

In 2005, he became the third American to wear the leader's jersey at the Tour de France, after three-time Tour winner Greg Lemond, and seven-time winner Lance Armstrong. George Hincapie and Floyd Landis became the fourth and fifth Americans in 2006.

Jason McCartney (born September 3, 1973 in Honolulu) is an American professional road racing cyclist for UCI ProTeam Team CSC Saxo Bank. His 2004 Tour de Georgia stage win was named the North American "Ride of the Year" by VeloNews Magazine. He resides in Coralville, Iowa.

Jason McCartney, who won king of the mountains bragging rights while finishing 39th overall last year in the Tour de Georgia, pulled out due to an illness. McCartney remained in hospital in Atlanta undergoing tests. A team staffer said that he has been having severe headaches and that doctors have done two lumbar punctures attempting to find out what the issue is. One possibility is viral meningitis, but doctors remain unsure.

China Olympics - Zabriskie, McCartney leave Olympic men's road race??
American cyclists David Zabriskie and Jason McCartney dropped out of Saturday's Olympic road race after helping chase down breakaway packs and exhausting themselves.

Zabriskie, who missed this year's Tour de France because of a broken back, dropped out about halfway through the 152-mile route. McCartney dropped out about 90 minutes later.

Zabriskie was at the rear of the peleton when the cyclists passed through the Great Wall for the first time after about 2 hours, 12 minutes and having completed roughly one-third of the total route.

He dropped farther back soon after, and abandoned the course with five laps remaining, but after helping chase down a breakaway pack to keep U.S. teammates Levi Leipheimer, George Hincapie and Christian Vande Velde somewhat near the front.

"I stayed as long as I could stay," Zabriskie said. "Of course I wanted to stay longer and help those guys more, but 30 guys got away and we didn't have anybody there and I tried to react as quick as possible. We were going fairly quick. It's better to shut a group out like that fairly quick."

After Zabriskie departed, McCartney also got involved in a chase and eventually fatigued in the arduous conditions, with 81-degree heat and 90 percent humidity.

But like Zabriskie, McCartney helped keep the rest of the peleton close.

"We didn't have anybody in that front group and I talked to George and Levi and if we didn't start riding right away, they would have been gone by 10 minutes," McCartney said. "So we needed to keep it down, keep it close, keep them in contact, which we did."

China Olympics - Zabriskie, McCartney leave Olympic men's road race??

China Olympics - Olympic Marathon Betting, Paula Radcliffe might not take part??

Paula Jane Radcliffe, MBE (born on 17 December 1973 in Davenham, England) is a world class British long-distance runner and currently holds a total of 10 world records.

Radcliffe's distinctive "nodding" action while running has made her instantly recognisable to British viewers. She is not known for her sprint finish and relies on setting a punishing pace from the start in order to pull away from her opponents and open up an unassailable gap.

In 2002 Radcliffe was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year and in June was awarded an MBE.

China Olympics - Olympic Marathon Betting, Paula Radcliffe might not take part??

News that Paula Radcliffe might not take part in the Beijing Olympics because organisers won't accompany her in the Marathon with a portable loo surprised everyone. No, wait, that's not right.

News that Paula Radcliffe might not take part in the Beijing Olympics because she was bitten by a poisonous spider at her training camp in France shocked all her supporters. However, the Great British Athlete is determined to be fit for the Olympics.

The Marathon World record holder said: "Something like that just makes you more determined to fight it off. I was trying to think of the positives and if you have a raging fever it's going to help the healing process."

Can Radcliffe Bite back and win Gold?

Womens Marathon Betting (Paddy Power)

• Chunxio Zhou - 9/4
• Catherine Ndereba - 4/1
• Paula Radcliffe - 8/1
  

China Olympics - Olympic Marathon Betting, Paula Radcliffe might not take part??

China Olympics - Jelena Jankovic getting greedy on return to fitness??

Jelena Janković (Serbian Cyrillic: Јелена Јанковић) is a Serbian professional female tennis player who was born on February 28, 1985. As of July 7, 2008, she is ranked World No. 2 but will become World No. 1 on August 11, 2008.

Janković has reached the singles semifinals of the Australian Open, the French Open, and the US Open. In 2007, she won the Wimbledon mixed doubles title with British partner Jamie Murray.

China Olympics - Jelena Jankovic getting greedy on return to fitness??

Serb Jelena Jankovic, fit again ahead of schedule following a knee injury, could be accused of getting a bit greedy.

The 23-year-old becomes the new world number one on Monday and hopes to add an Olympic gold medal five days later before turning her attention to the U.S. Open.

All this after injury threatened to ruin her season.

Following a shock fourth-round defeat at Wimbledon by Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn her physio told her the torn meniscus in her knee would keep her out for at least two months.

Three weeks later she was back on court and reached the semi-finals in Los Angeles. A quarter-final appearance in Montreal last week earned her enough points to dislodge fellow Serb Ana Ivanovic when the new list is published.

"I'm very proud that I'm becoming number one on Monday, despite having a really tough year with injuries so far and illness," Jankovic told reporters on Thursday after a practice session in stifling humidity at the Olympic Tennis Centre.

"It was my childhood dream to achieve the number one ranking. Finally I've joined that selection of great champions. There are only 18 who have made it number one, not many girls have done it in the history of tennis."

Despite her impending top ranking, Jankovic is yet to reach a grand slam final, losing in four semis. An Olympic gold would go some way to justifying her top spot although it is the U.S. title she really craves

"To be honest I would like to win the U.S. Open more (than the Olympics) although I would love to win them both," she said.

"Both are quite special. I would love to win a medal. Winning a medal is pride for your country and a different feeling, you can't compare it to a grand slam."

With Ivanovic and Jankovic seeded one and two in the women's singles and Novak Djokovic number three in the men's, Serbian eyes will be focused on the tennis courts for medals.

Jankovic thinks a golden double is not out of the question.

"I think there is a chance," she said. "We will see how we compete next week and I hope for all the best for Serbia."

Jankovic faces Zimbabwe's Cara Black in the first round of the tournament which starts on Sunday.

China Olympics - Jelena Jankovic getting greedy on return to fitness??

China Olympics - Beijing disperses rain to dry Olympic night??

China Olympics - Beijing disperses rain to dry Olympic night??

Beijing fired over 1,000 rain dispersal rockets on Friday evening to blow away rain clouds for the smooth opening ceremony of the 29th Olympic Games at the National Stadium, confirmed the local observatory on Saturday morning.

It was the largest rain dispersal operation in China, and the first time that such technology has been used to ensure the weather condition for Olympic opening, said Chinese meteorologists.

"We fired a total of 1,104 rain dispersal rockets from 21 sites in the city between 4 p.m. and 11:39 p.m. on Friday, which successfully intercepted a stretch of rain belt from moving towards the stadium," said Guo Hu, head of the Beijing Municipal Meteorological Bureau (BMB).

The observatory had given rainy weather forecast for the Olympic night, and monitored 90 percent of humidity rate.

"Under such a weather condition, a small bubble in the rain cloud would have triggered rainfall, let alone a lightening," said Guo, whose team had monitored the movement of the rain cloud heading for Beijing from 7:20 a.m. Friday.

Rain had been cited as the biggest threat the Olympic opening by chief director of the ceremony Zhang Yimou days ahead of the Olympic night.

As rain stayed away from the ceremony, the four-hour extravaganza in the Bird's Nest proved a dazzling show that entertained billions of people around the world.

However, the pressure from the rainy weather Friday evening was intense, as BMB gave the yellow alert (third highest degree) for thundershower at 9:35 p.m., and forecast rain to hit downtown Beijing within an hour.

The artificial rain dispersal efforts basically drove the rain away as of 10:42 p.m., when the show had been going on for over two hours, said BMB experts.

The weather services said that Baoding City of Hebei Province, to the southwest of Beijing received the biggest rainfall of 100 millimeters Friday night, and Beijing's Fangshan District recorded a rainfall of 25 millimeters.

China Olympics - Beijing disperses rain to dry Olympic night??

China Olympics- Korea`s 1st Gold Could Come Today???

China Olympics- Korea`s 1st Gold Could Come Today???
The Korean Olympic team could win its first gold of the Beijing Games today, with competitions scheduled in swimming, shooting, judo and archery.

▽ Saturday

○ Swimming: Park could win Korea’s 1st Olympic gold

“Marine Boy” Park Tae-hwan is seeking to win his country’s first Olympic gold medal in swimming. The preliminary round of the men’s 400-meter freestyle, one of his best events, will start 8:30 p.m. at the Beijing National Aquatics Center.

Grant Hackett of Australia, the world’s top-ranked competitor in the event, will compete in the first group; No. 2 Larsen Jensen of the United States in the second; and No. 3 Park in the third. Another contender who could pose a threat is Chinese swimming star Zhang Lin.

The top eight finishers will compete in the final.

Park, however, aims to finish in the top three rather than beat Zhang in the first round to secure one of the middle lanes in the final, where the current is relatively weaker.

If Park intentionally swims slower to hide his full potential, he might not secure a good lane. If he swims his best in the preliminary, however, he could suffer from physical exhaustion in the final.

○ Shooting: Korea’s 1st Gold in Beijing 2008?

Among the 302 Olympic events, the first gold medal will be awarded in the women`s 10-meter air rifle. The competition will begin at 9:30 a.m. and the winner will be decided before 11:50 a.m. at the Beijing Shooting Range Hall.

Kim Chan-mi and Kim Yeo-oul of Korea will compete in the event.

Du Li of China is the prohibitive favorite to win the event, but a shooter’s condition on the day of the event heavily affects the results, thus an upset is possible.

For instance, Korean high schooler Yeo Kab-soon surprised the world in 1992 by winning the first gold medal of the Barcelona Olympics in the event.

The men’s competition will begin at 1 p.m. Jin Jong-oh and Lee Dae-myeong will represent Korea.

○ Judo: Redemption for Athens

Choi Min-ho is heavily favored to win the men’s 60-kilogram division. He will compete at 7 p.m. at the Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium.

Choi settled for the silver in 2004 due to failure to control his weight in Athens. Since then, he has single-mindedly trained to win the gold in Beijing over the past four years and has superbly controlled his weight this time.

A tough quarterfinal, however, awaits Choi. His opponent will be Hiraoka Hiroaki of Japan, one of the sport’s toughest competitors.

▽ Sunday

○ Swimming: Park to steal the spotlight

The Water Cube will host the men’s 400-meter final at 11:21 a.m., and this is where Park Tae-hwan could make Korean Olympic history.

Korea coach Noh Min-sang predicts a four-way race among the four competitors holding the fastest times this season: Hackett (3:43:15), Larsen (3:43:53), Park (3:43:59) and Peter Vanderkaay of the United States (3:43:73).

Predicting the winner is tough since the four times are all within six tenths of a second of each other. Expectations are high for Park since he has made a remarkable improvement in Beijing.

○ Women’s Archery: Will Korea rule the world again?

Korea’s top-ranked women’s archery team of Park Sung-hyun, Joo Hyun-jung and Yun Ok-hee will compete in the first round at 11 a.m. at the Olympic Green Archery Field. The final will be held at 6:25 p.m.

The Korean women’s team has never failed to bring home a gold over the past five Olympics.

The country’s main rivals are China, which won the gold at this year’s Archery World Cup, and Taiwan, which won the silver at last year’s world championships. The United Kingdom, the United States and Poland are considered darkhorses.

Park, who hit the bullseye with her final arrow to give her country the gold over China in the 2004 Athens Games, aims to win another gold medal. The stone-faced Park wears dark sunglasses and is usually deep in thought, symbolizing the determination of her team.

China Olympics- Korea`s 1st Gold Could Come Today???

China Olympics-TV blackout !! American fans angered by Olympic ceremony

China Olympics-TV blackout !! American fans angered by Olympic ceremony!!!
The rest of the world might have been dazzled by the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony but angry US viewers clamoring for a glimpse of the spectacle on Friday were made to wait after a media blackout.

US network NBC, which owns exclusive rights to Olympics coverage in the United States, refrained from showing the opening ceremony live, preferring instead to delay coverage by 12 hours for a prime-time evening slot.

A spokesman for NBC, which paid nearly 900 million dollars for Olympic broadcast rights, said the decision was taken to maximize viewing figures.

"It's a business decision," the spokesman told AFP. "It protects our affiliates, our advertisers, and shows it to the largest number of viewers possible," he added.

Bizarrely, the co-hosts of NBC's breakfast television show barely mentioned the ongoing ceremony during their broadcast, which was reportedly pre-taped.

Meanwhile rival networks used correspondents in Beijing to describe details of the ceremony, but no footage of the extravaganza was available.

Major newspapers carried extensive reports of the ceremony in their online editions, with the story dominating The New York Times' homepage. The Times illustrated their coverage with a selection of photographs.

The opening ceremony blackout dismayed dozens of readers who posted messages on a New York Times message board.

"What a joke. I got up this morning to watch the ceremony assuming that it would be on," said one poster, Andrew, who wrote that he had found a live stream of the event on the Internet.

Another contributor, Leo, said attempting to impose a blackout in the age of the Internet was impossible.

"A delayed play is ridiculous in an Internet age," he wrote. "They thought people could pretend to ignore such an important event was happening on the (other) side of the global? It's impossible."

Others accused NBC of living in a bygone era.

"I can't understand how in 2008, in the area of instant access, with multiple media outlets, NBC behaves as if we are in 1950, and has the guts to make audiences 'wait' for a live coverage that many other countries in the world can see as they are taking place," wrote Erik.

Another poster, Jordan, lamented: "Richest country in the world and we can't watch the Olympic opening ceremony live. Its being shown live all over the world ... NBC is pathetic."

A writer on the San Francisco Chronicle's website accused NBC of putting advertising revenues before public service.

"NBC is an acronym for 'Not airing Before making big Cash! The Chinese may censor their people over politics -- our corporate overlords sensor (sic) us over profits," the reader fumed.

Meanwhile, attempts to circumvent the blackout on Youtube were quickly clamped down. Although several users of the popular video-sharing site appeared to have posted clips of the ceremony, the items were later blocked.

However, other sites scoured the web in order to locate live coverage of the opening ceremony, the New York Times reported, and found success with a German-language feed amongst others.

The NBC spokesman said the network was rigorously enforcing web violations of its broadcast rights.

"We take copyright law very seriously and we're actively working with the IOC (International Olympic Committee) to ensure the take-down of infringing Olympic content on the Internet," he said.

China Olympics-TV blackout !! American fans angered by Olympic ceremony!!!

China Olympics - Overview

China Olympics - Overview

The Olympic Games are an international multi-sport event. The Modern Olympic Games were inaugurated in Athens in 1896, and are held at the beginning of every Olympiad. The Games were organized as a summer sports event through 1920. In 1924 the winter games began in Chamonix, France. Until 1992, they were both held in the same year. Since then, the summer games are held during the first year of an Olympiad, the winter games during the third year.

The original Olympic Games (Greek: Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες; [Olympiakoi Agones] (help·info)) were first recorded in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece, and were celebrated until AD 393.Interest in reviving the Olympic Games proper was first shown by the Greek poet and newspaper editor Panagiotis Soutsos in his poem "Dialogue of the Dead" in 1833.Evangelos Zappas sponsored the first modern international Olympic festival in 1859. He paid for the refurbishment of the Panathinaiko Stadium for Games held there in 1870 and 1875.This was noted in newspapers and publications around the world including the London Review, which stated that "the Olympian Games, discontinued for centuries, have recently been revived! Here is strange news indeed ... the classical games of antiquity were revived near Athens".

The International Olympic Committee was founded in 1894 on the initiative of a French nobleman, Pierre Frédy, Baron de Coubertin. The IOC has become the heart of the "Olympic Movement", a conglomeration of sporting federations that are involved in the organization of the Games. As the Olympic Movement has grown so has the profile and complexity of the Games. Participation in the Games has increased to the point that nearly every nation on earth is represented. With the proliferation of satellite communications, the internet, and the continuing trend towards globalization, the Olympics are consistently gaining supporters.This growth has created numerous challenges never before envisioned by Baron de Coubertin. Some of these difficulties include political boycotts, the use of performance enhancing medications, bribery of officials, and terrorism.

Despite these challenges the Olympics have continued to thrive and flourish. Each successive Games attempts to add more events in order to keep up with the ever-evolving advance of athletic expression around the world. The upcoming games in Beijing are planned to comprise 302 events in 28 sports.The most recent Winter Olympics in 2006 featured 84 events in 7 sports.While the Olympic Games do continue to evolve, they also encompass many rituals that were established during their infancy in the late 19th and early 20th century. Most of these traditions are on display during the Opening and Closing ceremonies, and the medal presentations. For its part, the Olympic Movement has made considerable progress in fostering participation among as many nations as wish to compete, as well as focusing on the Olympic motto: Citius Altius Fortius - Faster, Higher, Stronger.

China Olympics - Overview